Internet service providers (ISPs), enterprise IT departments and other network providers may provide networks that implement Authentication, Authorization, and/or Accounting (AAA). Such AAA protocols may include the Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) and the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP), which is an authentication framework.
The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model is a layered, abstract description for communications and computer network protocol design. The seven layers include: (1) physical, (2) data link, (3) network, (4) transport, (5) session, (6) presentation, and (7) application. EAP may run over the data link layer (layer 2) and or within a secure connection (e.g., using layer 3 and above) using transport layer security (TLS), for example.
The RADIUS protocol specification is maintained by a working group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as described in RFC 2865 and 2866. The EAP specification is maintained by a working group of the IETF as described in RFCs 3748 and 2716.